Ford shares close lower on Thursday, lower sales and higher investment activity to pressure company’s first-quarter earnings

Ford Motor Company (F) projects to earn less per share during the first quarter and to generate a lower pretax profit this year, as it spends more on commodities, warranties and investments, while at the same time, sales volumes decrease.

Ford shares closed lower on Thursday, while also marking their fourth loss in the past five trading sessions. The stock went down 0.85% ($0.10) to $11.67, after touching an intraday low at $11.50, or a price level not seen since November 9th 2016 ($11.07). In the week ended on March 19th the shares of the global automotive company lost 0.40% of their market value compared to a week ago, which marked a second consecutive period of decline. The stock has extended its slump to 6.86% so far during the current month, following a 1.38% surge in February. The latter has been a fourth consecutive month of gains, but yet, the smallest one since July 2016. For the entire past year, Ford shares lost 13.91%.

Ford projects that its earnings per share to be within the range between $0.30 and $0.35 during the first quarter of the year. In comparison, the median forecast by analysts has pointed to earnings of $0.47 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

On the other hand, the auto maker left its 2017 pretax profit forecast unrevised at $9 billion, following $10.4 billion in pretax profit last year, supported by “planned investments in emerging opportunities”. In comparison, the median analyst estimate has pointed to a pretax profit of $9.2 billion this year. However, the company projects an increase in this metric in 2018.

Ford Motor Company also kept its 2017 pretax profit forecast unchanged at about $1.5 billion for its financial services arm Ford Credit, while expecting an increase in 2018.

“We think we can do more with trucks, we think we can do more with utility vehicles, we can do more with performance and weve got plans in place to do that”, Bob Shanks, Fords Chief Financial Officer, said during an investor presentation on March 23rd, cited by Reuters. “We think this can lead to an even stronger position for us in the years ahead.”

According to the car maker, auto industry sales in the United States may drop to 17.7 million units this year, following record sales of 17.9 million units in 2016. The manufacturer also said that 2018 might see another slight drop in auto sales to 17.5 million units.

As far as sales in the largest auto market in the world, China, are concerned, Ford expects a decrease to 27.2 million units in 2017 from 27.5 million units last year.

Daily and Weekly Pivot Levels

With the help of the Camarilla calculation method, today’s levels of importance for the Ford stock are presented as follows:

R1 – $11.69
R2 – $11.72
R3 (Range Resistance – Sell) – $11.74
R4 (Long Breakout) – $11.81
R5 (Breakout Target 1) – $11.89
R6 (Breakout Target 2) – $11.92

S1 – $11.65
S2 – $11.62
S3 (Range Support – Buy) – $11.60
S4 (Short Breakout) – $11.53
S5 (Breakout Target 1) – $11.45
S6 (Breakout Target 2) – $11.42

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Ford Motor Company (F) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $12.56
R1 – $12.66
R2 – $12.85
R3 – $12.95
R4 – $13.06

S1 – $12.37
S2 – $12.27
S3 – $12.08
S4 – $11.90